The Island of Contenda (1996)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Cape Verde, 1964. At the feet of a mighty volcano, the traditional Cape Verdean society is undergoing a steady change. The old land-owning aristocracy is disintegrating. A class of "mulattos" begins to emerge, with a trade-based financial power that threatens the landlords. A new identity arises, a mix of old and new, of African and Portuguese culture, sensual and dynamic. The songs of Cesária Évora follow this inevitable transformation. From the novel by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa.
- Actors:
- Marina Albuquerque, Fernanda Alves, Simão Pedro Alves, Isabel Araújo, Francisco Barbosa, Gabriel Borges, Camacho Costa, Luísa Cruz, Isabel de Castro, Henrique Espírito Santo, José Fanha, José Fernandes, Laurinda Ferreira, Leandro Ferreira, Filipe Ferrer, Paula Gomes, Cecília Guimarães, Betina Lopes, João Lourenço, Teresa Madruga
- Directors:
- Leão Lopes
- Producers:
- Paulo De Sousa
- Writers:
- Henrique Teixeira de Sousa, José Fanha, Leão Lopes
- Aka:
- Ilhéu da Contenda / Contenda Island
- Genres:
- Drama
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Reviews (1) of The Island of Contenda
No Fireworks, Just a Slow Exhale - The Island of Contenda review by griggs
Inheritance is never neutral, and this film knows it — money and land turn up with strings nobody wants to name out loud, and the family squirming around it is most of the fun.
Director Leão Lopes lets the old aristocracy rot rather than collapse. The house keeps standing while the people in it slowly become irrelevant to their own address, which unsettled me more than any dramatic exit would have.
What I liked most is how race sits right at the crack between the old families and whoever's inheriting the future, handled with real specificity rather than a vague nod at "class issues." There's real friction in how the newer arrivals are received, by the old guard and by each other. Cesária Évora's songs drift through it all like they know exactly how this ends.
The Island of Contenda would make a great double bill with Memories of Underdevelopment — Eusébio and Sergio each end up mourning a world that's already moved on without them, revealing their irrelevance.
No fireworks. Just a very long, slow exhale.